Whatever happened to the FBI investigation into the Niger forgeries?

[LiviaOlivia]

Upping the Ante, Part I
By Josh Marshall
Jul 14, 2005 -- 05:27:32 PM EST
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/14/172732/082


~snip~

A question for Sen. Roberts (R): The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence used the on-going FBI investigation into the origins of the Niger forgeries as the pretext for not allowing the committee to investigate the matter.

Yet the FBI never mounted a serious investigation. Key principals in the case drew only cursory interviews. No follow-up interview was ever done with Elizabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who brought the forgeries to the American Embassy in Rome. No attempt was ever made to interview the documents peddler at the center of the story -- Rocco Martino -- even though he was twice brought to the United States in the summer of 2004 after his identity as the purveyor of the documents had already been publicly revealed.

Other reporting suggests that the FBI work on the case remained embarrassingly thin as late as the end of last year. The list goes on and on. It was a notional investigation. Sen. Roberts must know this. He must have known that while his committee was using the purported investigation as a pretext for not investigating the matter on their own. Who will call him on it? The ranking member of the SSCI doesn't seem up to the task. But what about Sen. Schumer? The Judiciary Committee has some claim on this issue too. Why doesn't he ask some questions?